


0. The Fool

by heartdyed



Series: Rider-Waite-Smith [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Vampire AU, late posting of old fic, not even vaguely attempting to be canon compliant, ruri is yuzu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 03:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13379490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartdyed/pseuds/heartdyed
Summary: The first trump of the major arcana, The Fool portends important decisions ahead which may not be easy to make, and involves an element of risk.   (Shun does not like his options, but as if choice had long been anything but a euphemism for risk.)---At the back of the room, woken by the sound of their raised voices, Yuto stirs.  Ruri lowers her voice and glares at him, stubborn.  "If one of us leaves, we all do."





	0. The Fool

**Author's Note:**

> As noted in the tags, this is a very old work-- written before we had any proof Ruri was _not_ Yuzu. As such, the Ruri in this fic is literally Yuzu, her characterization is not supposed to match Ruri as is written in the show, especially as I never bothered watching that far. 
> 
> This fic is part of a series that contains the violent explicit work [XV. The Devil](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4363862). This chapter is completely sfw, but if you are uncomfortable with the fact this fic is part of a series that does lead up to that, you may not want to read further. 
> 
> All that aside, I hope you enjoy! It might not be canon compliant, but I think Rider-Waite-Smith is a decent fic series even if I wrote the beginning, the end, and only part of the middle! More will be posted as I feel like it.

In the cold of the basement bunker, Ruri and Yuto nestle close to Shun's side. The radio plays only static these days, the days when it had music long gone. But still, they keep it on to wait for news. Ruri and Shun's parents had told them to wait there, and look after each other, and Yuto had no parents to ask him anything so Shun and Ruri took him in without being asked. 

It's hard to be scared down there, without any news. The locks stay tight, and no noise from above penetrates the walls. If it wasn't for the chaos before they were shut away, they'd never know the world is now anything but peaceful. But even without fear, it's easy to be _worried_ — are their parents all right? Do they need help? They don't even have a clock to gauge the day-light hours, without any signal to connect to the network. But even if they knew, it was no guarantee the day makes it safe to search the streets. It could be a myth.

Everything they had thought about vampires being fictional was wrong, so _that_ could be wrong too. During the "day" they talk about it, but wondering doesn't answer any questions, it just tells them how little they know. Every day, they learn they can answer less and less.

It weighs heavy on Shun. When they're not talking it's because they're sleeping and he hates the inactivity. His mind's restlessness reflects his body's idleness. It explores every possibility that he can't prove at the cost of his sleep.

Shun can't get up without waking them, so he waits until Ruri makes an irritated huff and rolls off him, to go sit by the closed safe-house door. He gently shifts Yuto onto his side and off of him, and follows her up. "What's wrong?"

"Why don't you tell me first? You weren't sleeping, and it was keeping me up."

He snorts softly. "So it's my fault, now?"

"Yeah." She nods, with wisdom she's really good at play-acting at having, for only being at ten years old. "Because you're the one worrying me. You should say sorry."

"Sorry." He says it just because she asked for it, not because he is, but she accepts it anyway.

"Good. You should be." She sticks her tongue out and he flaps a hand at her to hit her lightly on the head as she ducks away. "You still didn't tell me what you were thinking about, so that's why." 

"It's nothing we can do anything about from in here." 

"Well, then maybe we shouldn't stay in here." She puts a hand to the heavy sealed door, her head directed up at the unseen stairwell beyond it.

"Ruri! It's not safe up there!" Shun objects.

"We're just going to run out of food down here if we stay much longer. And I don't want to eat Yuto." She nods seriously, again.

It's not something she should joke about, and Shun recoils at that thought of it, despite knowing she's trying to lighten the mood. "I can get more—" He cuts off as Ruri pinches him, hard.

"That's a stupid idea! You'll just get picked off by yourself by those vampires and then we _will_ run out! Or you'll come back and eat us, _for real_!" At the back of the room, woken by the sound of their raised voices, Yuto stirs Ruri lowers her voice and glares at him with her lapis lazuli eyes, stubborn. "If one of us leaves, we all do."

He looks back at Yuto, who had just sat up, and met his gaze with steely gray eyes. If he acts on his thoughts and leaves on his own, Yuto won't be content to wait for him, not after his parents had left him behind and not come back alive, had turned into a lurid news headline before any of it had sunk in for real. 

He turns back to Ruri. "Fine."

They will have to risk it sometime. He knows better than to think there's such a thing as forever.


End file.
